Re: Question concerning entry level programmer skills

Jim wrote:

> <<snip>> I can assure you, a
> diploma is no garantee the student learned anything. Only that they
> paid there full tuition.

AMEN!

Now I've hired green programmers for the green screen world for, well more years
than I care to admit, and have been pretty lucky in my choices.

What I have looked for in a newbie from a two year technical collage which had 
at
least some courses in RPG  is 1) did they pass the course 2) do they want to 
learn
3) are they self motivated 4) are they afraid of work.

On the first day I assure them that the first thing they will learn here is how
little they learned in school.  Green is green. Some of the responses I've read 
on
this thread is like asking a driver ed student to enter a stock car race.  Get 
real.

Know subfiles?  A good one will know where in the manuals to find an example.  
They
might even have written one as a class exercise.  In either case they're about 
as
close to the real world requirements as the moon.

To hire a green grad is a commitment to time and the willingness to mentor.  
Give
them a simple project that will actually be used.  Their egos will need it.  
For the
first year they'll by doing a lot of cut and paste without having a clue as to 
why
it works.  And every three months you'll have to talk them out of making a 
career
change to telemarketing.  But that one day will occur.  The day they walk in, 
and
you can literally see it in their eyes, somehow in the middle of the night, it 
all
came together.  It now makes sense.  Now they're dangerous. ;)  At this point, 
you
start to shift from mentor to manager.

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